Process & Glossary

There’s more to design than meets the eye! 👀 In fact — after negotiating a contract — every project I work on starts with a research phase. And before starting with design or code we spend time together setting goals and workshopping content and organization.

(Of course, the process for every project is a little bit different, but what you see below is a pretty typical outline.)

1. Plan

Pre-research and Scoping

Ask the Project starter questions
Determine project scope and performance measures.
Identify project stakeholders, site editors, and target audiences.
Outline key questions, process, strategy, goals, recommendations, technology.

2. Design

Content Strategy
Articulate flexible guidelines to help promote cohesive messaging, tone, and style.

Information Architecture
Audit existing content and structure. Annotate issues with existing site design.

Wireframes
Map out pages in low-fidelity.

Visual Research
Ground the visual design by surveying historical materials, current landscape, and distant future.

Mockups
Synthesize strategy, architecture, and research into a set of redesigned site templates.

3. Build

Prototype
Create a live staging site demonstrating the breadth of designs and functionalities.

Iterate
Gather late-stage feedback from stakeholders and incorporate back into prototype.

Training
Train site editors on new structure.

Content Migration
Merge, import, and clean up existing site content, in collaboration with site editors.

Testing
Soft-launch prototype and gather feedback from a wider audience.

4. Launch

5. Debrief

Reflect on initial scope, goals, and plan for evaluating initial performance measures. Is everything working as planned? Did we meet our goals? What are future areas of improvement?

Process & Glossary

1.Plan

2.Design

3.Build

4.Launch

5.Debrief

1. Plan

2. Design

3. Build

4. Launch

5. Debrief

1.
Plan

2.
Design

3.
Build

4.
Launch

5.
Debrief